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After West Texas shooting, Texas House Rep. says "NO" to gun restrictions

Rep. Matt Schaefer, R-Tyler, has received a wave of reactions — and criticism — following his tweets reacting to Saturday's Permian Basin shooting.

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State Rep. Matt Schaefer, R-Tyler, speaks with a colleague on the House floor during the House School Finance plan deliberation on April 3, 2019.
Credit: Emree Weaver/The Texas Tribune

After the state's second mass shooting in a month left eight people dead — including the shooter — and 19 injured in West Texas, an East Texas lawmaker took to Twitter to adamantly assert that he would not support any new gun restrictions.

On Saturday, Rep. Matt Schaefer, R-Tyler, tweeted that "Godless depraved hearts" were the "root of the problem." An hour later, he began a thread in which he called for no "red flag" laws or bans on AR-15 rifles and high capacity magazines. He also said there should not be mandatory gun buyback policies.

"YES to supporting our public schools," Schaefer tweeted. "YES to giving every law-abiding single mom the right to carry a handgun to protect her and her kids without permission from the state, and the same for all other law-abiding Texans of age."

The tweets have since received thousands of responses, including public figures such as Piers Morgan, Soledad O'Brien, John Legend and Matthew Dowd. Shannon Watts, founder of Moms Demand Action, said, "This is why America has a 25 times higher rate of gun homicide than any other high income country."

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Criminal justice Mass shootings Matt Schaefer